


What's in a Name?

by sylviadraft



Series: It Takes a Village [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Mentions of Past Slavery, animal adoption, brief angst, but it'll get better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26149312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviadraft/pseuds/sylviadraft
Summary: “Who, who is it?” The lights in the room clicked on and after a moment his eyes adjusted to see a familiar blue twi’lek propped on his bed.“Aayla! Do you know what time it is-”“Stop whining, I have the best news.”OR: Aayla finds a tooka and gives Anakin an identity crisis
Relationships: Aayla Secura & Anakin Skywalker
Series: It Takes a Village [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897480
Comments: 6
Kudos: 173





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't planning on updating this work this soon, but I was overcome with inspiration. I've got an idea for the next section as well but let me know if there is any friendships/moments you would like to see and I'll try to write them!

“Anakin,” someone was whispering his name, but Anakin wasn’t awake enough to know if it was actually happening or just a dream. 

“Anakin!” This time the whisper was followed by a jab to his ribs, _not a dream, noted_.

“Who, who is it?” The lights in the room clicked on and after a moment his eyes adjusted to see a familiar blue twi’lek propped on his bed. 

“Aayla! Do you know what time it is-”

“Stop whining, I have the best news.”

Aayla pauses dramatically, and Anakin knows better than to interrupt her theatrics. Instead, he rubs the sleep out of his eyes and tries to morph his features into the very picture of excitement. 

“What are you doing? It looks like you’ve sprained something.”

Maybe it’s still too early for his facial features to cooperate, Aayla doesn’t seem to care as she barges on. 

“I found...a tooka kit!”

Anakin stares blankly, clearly not amused by Aayla’s enthusiasm. 

“This is what you woke me up for?”

“Don’t be a brat!”

“Aayla you are almost 17 standard years aren’t you a little old to be excited over a tooka kit.” Anakin intones in what he hopes is a perfect expression of Obi-Wan. 

Aayla hits him with a pillow. 

“You should be grateful, there are tons of other padawans who would be thrilled about this discovery.”

“Yeah but you aren’t friends with any other padawans.”

That earns him another smack. 

“Well? Are you coming Skywalker?”

Anakin tenses at the name. It’s been years since anyone has addressed him by his last name. On Tatooine it was an insult, a slave name. 

“Anakin?” Aayla stops dead, like she can tell something is wrong. She probably can, she is a jedi. “Anakin what’s wrong?”

Aayla doesn’t look at him with pity, she never looks at him with pity. Instead, her eyes are filled with an understanding. For some reason, Anakin feels stronger when he’s in Aayla’s eyes. He’d asked Obi-Wan, shortly after meeting her, if Aayla had been a slave as well. 

_”No, Aayla was discovered practically as an infant, why do you ask?”_

_“She...she looks like she understood...when I told her about, about me.”_

_Obi-Wan had nodded sagely, thinking for a moment before sitting with a sigh._

_“Aayla has never been a slave but she has a deep understanding of the...abomination practiced in the galaxy...”_

The conversation was uncomfortable but important. Anakin felt closer to his fellow padawan, knowing that many of her people suffered as he had. 

“Why, why did you call me that?”

“Call you by your last name?” Aayla looks confused, “Isn’t it your family name? Your mother’s name?” She stops for a moment, “I guess that’s what we do on Ryloth, was it different on Tatooine.”

_Your mother’s name_. Anakin had never thought about it like that. The idea bloomed in his chest, _his mother’s name_.

“I can keep calling you Anakin, if you don’t like it.” Aayla’s voice was soft.

“No! No I...I like it.” Anakin gave a small smile. It had never occurred to him that even now, thousands of systems away from his mother he still carried part of her with him. “But only if I can call you Secura.”

Aayla laughed, high and bright, and ruffled his hair. “Come on you dork, we have a tooka to name.” 

Anakin laughed with her, and sped up his pace, before he was overcome by another thought. 

“Oh what is it now?” 

“Following Ryloth custom, shouldn’t we name the tooka after you?” He grinned and dodged as Aayla moved to swat at him. 

“I had another idea.”

“Oh?” Aayla’s eyes were bright as she turned to him. 

“I was thinking we could name it after Master Windu.”


	2. Chapter 2

“I won’t say it again Windu! You will go to the bathroom in this box and you _will_ like it.”

It’s not...uncommon to hear strange things in the temple from time to time, but this might be the first strange thing Mace’s ever heard with his name attached. He turns the corner to find Initiate Offee standing with one hand on her hip and glaring at small tooka. 

“Good morning initiate,” Barriss practically jumps out of her skin, her eyes fill with realization. 

“I wasn’t, I didn’t,” she scrambles over her words, “Anakin and Aayla named him! It wasn’t me, Master!”

“Windu? Did you say?” Mace moves to scoop up the tooka, “I happen to quite like the name Windu. Good, strong name.” The tooka purrs in his arms. 

_”I wonder if Depa is looking for a pet._

“Is he yours Initiate Offee?”

“N-no Master,” she seems confused by the question, “Aayla and Anakin _promised_ to take care of him but they got bored.”

Mace has to smother a grin, oh to be young again.

“Well if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take him in. With a name like Windu he must be destined for great things.”

* * *

Barriss watches as _Master Windu_ scoops up the tooka and carries the kit down the hallway. Is he _cooing?_ To a _tooka_?

Anakin and Aayla are never going to believe her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This user is a Mace Windu apologist, that is all.


End file.
